Midnight in Paris: WW3
by Defiant493
Summary: In World War 3, it's easy for any civilian to just become a number to toll. This story tells of the voiceless citizens of Paris, France and their story of survival. They are all soldiers without an army.
1. Prologue

Prologue: No Russian

**Zachaev International Airport, Moscow, **

**Russia. August 12, 2016**

**Aaron Gungnir, civilian**

I questioned who exactly Zachaev was as soon as I set foot in this airport. It was a little stop my girlfriend, Cat, and I took just for sightseeing, before making our living in Paris, mostly for college though. I wasn't having the most fun, but my optimistic self made the most of it. We were back at the airport, passing the statue. "Hero of The New Russia," It said in many translations. I decided to ignore it despite my curiosity, for catching the plane to Paris was more important.

I turned 19, just 4 days ago, so I still got looks for being this young. The officer handling my passport made this clear.

At this point we got to security. Ironically, this place is where I felt the most vulnerable in my life.

If I'm correct, we were a couple people away from the metal detectors. There was a cop and an elevator to our right. The next thing I remember, I saw the elevator behind the cop. I heard the typical Russian phrase, "S'nami Bog" out of the elevator. It means "God is with us." The elevator opened to reveal a couple armed men, in black. Now, these men had large American made assault rifles, like an M4A1 in one man's hands, and even a light machine gun; an M240 in another's hands. The men seemed to be in a black uniform. They're faces weren't covered, so I assumed they were security. The one in front with spiked black hair looked peculiar. The cop, and many people by the elevator just like me turned and stared. No one was sure if they were supposed to be scared or not.

When everyone was turned. I heard one man mutter, turning to the others, "Remember, No Russian."

They pulled their guns to a hip fire stance. I took Cat, and threw her backwards. And they opened fire. I felt a couple shots to the legs and torso. I couldn't feel how many, as I fell to the ground, behind an X-ray machine. I couldn't hear anything, but I knew that there would be people screaming. As I began to get my hearing back I saw Cat screaming at me, I put my hand over her mouth, grabbed her shirt, and pulled her behind the machine with me. I felt the tears dripping down. She tried to scream at the pile of bodies that lay before us, but I didn't let her. The men walked over the bodies, and through the metal detectors. We could hear the beeping sound of the machines amongst the screams, and we saw them shoot every last person in the room, and those who tried running up the escalators.

The men left up the escalators, but we still heard alarms, screams and gunshots. I took my hand off of her mouth to hear her utter,

"Aaron… I… I love you…" she stuttered a lot.

"Calm down, I'm not gonna die." I said, tasting blood.

"Yes you are! You're gonna fucking die!" She said, collapsing on me, bursting into tears.

I lifted her head, to try to talk to her, but she clung to me before I could say anything. I hugged her back, and after that I heard various clicking noises, and saw the departure board; seeing everything switch to "delayed." I tried to do everything to calm her down, to no avail. Cat continued to scream and sob. I was starting to black out before I saw a woman coated in blood, in a medic uniform running around as if she was looking for someone. I noticed she had a briefcase. As she noticed us, she ran in this direction. I felt a bit of relief, and I passed out. I decided not to ask Cat the rest of what happened that day.

I was told at when I woke up in the hospital, that 243 people were killed in the massacre.


	2. That Was No Terrorist Attack

Chapter 1: That Was No Terrorist Attack

**Paris, France. **

**October 6, 2016: 2 months and 25 days after the massacre.**

**Aaron Gungnir, civilian**

My wounds had been well healed by then. Cat and I lived in a quaint apartment in Paris. None of the native people there were too fond of us being Americans, but we spoke French like a first language. Like all mornings we turned on the news, but to our surprise, we found a report on the GIGN tracking a mysterious truck that arrived off the coast. I thought:

"Oh wow, French people getting scared. That doesn't surprise me."

Those were my thoughts until I saw actual soldiers blocking roads and the streets, and posted to cut off the truck. There were citizens surrounding the barricades on the streets, and officers keeping them back. I saw the news helicopter aim at the blockade to see the GIGN soldiers aiming their guns down the street. I called Cat over to see it with me.

They switched to a reporter on the ground. They aimed the camera down the street to see the truck turning the corner. It was obviously in a hurry. The soldiers at the blockade all opened fire on the truck's driver. It swerved around the road and eventually tipped over. The soldiers ceased fire. A few walked over to the back of the truck, and the reporter asked the soldiers if they could walk up, and they agreed to allow it. Cat and I stared intently. The reporter walked up and she was oblivious to the soldiers trying to open it. They eventually yelled at one of the soldiers to get a crowbar but at that point it didn't matter.

The truck exploded and the camera went flying to the point where we couldn't tell what was going on. We heard screams at least, so we knew it was pretty bad.

"Okay... If you could call Alena, that'd be great." I said.

Alena was one of our British friends. She was best friends with Cat when we were in America. She might want to know about something of this importance. I also called my American friend Michael, who now lives in Germany.

"Dude! Did you get the news!" Michael yelled. I could tell he knew something happened!

"Yeah, It's on the telly right now!" I cried!

"Damn Aaron, I saw it right down the street!" He told me.

"Wait... Where were you?" I asked, confused.

"I don't know. Somewhere in downtown Hamburg, why?" He asked, also confused.

"Um, we just had a truck blow up at Verrerie..." I said, realizing what had happened.

"So... We're both fucked. Okay, just... Let me know how things turn out there, alright?" He asked, more concerned than he usually was.

"Kay, see you bro." I said with a crack in my voice, before abruptly hanging up.

I went to go see Cat, and I came to see her crying. I hugged her, and without asking what was wrong, I whispered,

"We're gonna be okay, Cat. I promise. I know it."

She didn't say a word to me. But just then a news report came on.

"Breaking news, at 6:22 Greenwich Mean Time, chemical attacks were triggered across europe. Citizens in Paris, are being asked to leave their homes if they're in a 4 kilometer radius of 1600 Rue De La Verrerie. The death toll alone in Paris lies at around 14, so far. luckily, the gas of the attack has been the cause on no deaths so far, but we'll bring you everything as the story develops."

At this, Cat ran to our room, and slammed the door. I followed her, and knocked. I didn't hear anything so I cracked it open to find her crying into her pillow.

"Cat. We're gonna be fine. We're not gonna have to leave, our place is far from there. Really, we're gonna be alright." I wanted to say anything that could make her feel better. It always killed me to see her like that.

She stopped sobbing and at this point just started to breathe really hard into her pillow.

"Just know I'm here for you." I whispered to her. After a while, she fell asleep, and I managed to carry her with me back to the living room. I set her down, sat down with her and leaned her against me. I knew waking up like that would be a relief to her. At this point I put my hands on my face and sighed.

"Geez. This has been a shitty day, and it's not even 7."

As more news followed, another report came on with the caption, "Russian troops present in Paris."

"Eyewitnesses are now reporting Russian tanks rolling down the Champs-Élysées."

I decided I would try to fall asleep and wake up from this nightmare. I turned off the tv, and I held Cat tightly, and just collapsed onto the couch with her.

Next thing I knew, the apartment next to ours exploded. It woke up both of us, and we both screamed and grabbed onto each other. I saw a helicopter outside the apartment, strafing the buildings across the street. It turned my way. I instinctively grabbed Cat's hand and yanked her out the front door into the hall. I heard many bullets bursting through the wall, and wood shards flying off the walls. I waited until the guns stopped spinning before peeking back into our room. I went to a safe in our room, which then had the wall to the streets below burst open.

I opened it and i pulled out a .44 Magnum. I gave it to Cat. She had never held a gun before. I told her,

"They don't like these outside of America. I knew we'd need something. Now... We're gonna get out of here. And we're gonna be safe. Come on."

I went to the kitchen, grabbed some knives, sharpened them, and put them in my coat pocket. Cat followed me into the room.

"Aaron?" she asked uncertainly, her hazel eyes widening slightly as she watched me sharpen the knives.

"Cat..." I said before sitting on the kitchen floor and leaning against what was left of the cabinets. I tapped the floor next to me. She sat down.

"Cat. I'm not sure how to explain this to you but when it comes to surviving, you kind of have to do everything you can to help yourself." I stuttered so much as I got choked up telling her that.

"But Aaron," she whispered hesitantly, her gaze never leaving the sharp edges of the knives I held in my hands.

I grabbed a cloth, wrapped it around the blade she was staring at, and then put it in her pocket.

"We're gonna get through this together. I swear. Just follow me, and I'll protect you, just like I always promised I would." I said, with a crackle in my voice.

I got off the ground holding her hand and went to the door.

"Let's do this," I said firmly. Cat nodded grimly and we prepared to leave the room.


	3. Scorched Earth

**Chapter 3: Scorched Earth**

**Paris, France. October 6, 2016**

**Aaron Gungnir, Civilian**

Cat and I exited our apartment to find the halls shredded.

"Let's go down the stairwell," I said decisively. We found it at the end of the hallway, and we started to go down. We got about one floor down before we heard a door open on the street level. We heard russian conversation. I made us go into the hall of the 2nd floor to hide. I heard one of them say "Sto," the Russian word for "What." So, I could tell they heard us open the door.

I told Cat, concerned, "Keep quiet. I'll take care of this."

We crawled behind the door, where it would open, and I pulled out a knife. Next, the door opened, and a man in a heavy Russian military uniform came out armed with an AK-74u. He walked straight, and as his back was to me, I lunged onto his back, held his mouth shut, and stabbed him in the neck. Blood spurted everywhere as he flinched before collapsing forward on his knees then falling in a pool of blood.

"Aaron... h... holy shit, you killed him..." Cat whispered, breathing deeply, and stuttering. Her eyes stared at the blood all over the carpet, as she gasped, and seemed to twitch.

"Try to think of them as," I paused to think, "animals. Try animals." I said, trying to explain myself.

I took the AK, and a few magazines in the soldier's jacket, as well as a combat knife. My pockets were now full, and I thought all this would suffice. I stabbed him again in the back of the neck with his combat knife for good measure. Cat was whispering gutral words to herself for a while after that.

I opened the door quietly to see the second russian on the street level of the wide stairwell. There were 2 floors below that for employees and garages. I took Cat's hand and I grabbed the bloody knife I salvaged from the russian. I dropped it down the stairwell to the 2nd basement floor. The soldier heard the clink of it against the floor and headed down the stairs. I took Cat and tiptoed down the stairs to ground level. The russian saw the knife, readied his weapon, then entered the garage on the bottom level. We left the stairwell to enter the foyer of our apartment complex.

Still holding Cat's hand I told her, "I know a place where we can be safe."

She followed, but she was still very afraid, and still obviously in shock. The city was deserted with distant gunfire here and there. A surprising amount of buildings were intact, but I didn't expect it to last. I brought us down Rue de Temple, a narrow street, practically an alley, to avoid detection. We were able to walk down for some time until we found the Centre Pompidou, at Rue Saint-Merri. A helicopter flew down the street, and I pushed us against the buildings, in the hope that it didn't see us.

Cat, still cursing, told me, "Oh, fuck. Oh, fuck, Aaron, I can't do this..." and she began to cry.

"Cat..." I pulled her into an abandoned store and had her sit on the floor, as I kneeled in front of her. I set a hand on her shoulder. "Cat, i know you can do this. I know."

"Prove it!" she cried at me, with her hands in her face.

I took her hands and wrapped them around me. She always said it made her feel safe. After that, I took the magnum out of her pocket and put it in her hand. But, with the gun in her hand, she lunged to hug me. I hugged her back as tight as i could. After our hug of reassurance, we were able to summon the courage to keep moving.

After that, we headed west, down the road. Our final destination was going to be a church. The church was the Eglise St. Eustache, and it would suffice to keep us safe for the time being. Luckily we were able to walk in the front doors of the church without having any more scary encounters. Cat and I quickly found the main chapel, and rested on the benches. We hung around the building until dusk. We hadn't eaten all day.


	4. The Morning After

**Chapter 4: The Morning After**

**Paris, France. **

**October 7, 2016**

**Aaron Gungnir, civilian**

The church offered us some peace and quiet. Cat and I slept there and woke up with some thunder around 5 in the morning. We slept at dusk, so we were rested enough. Cat and I were both starving after that night so I went out to find something. Cat refused that I go without her. I gave the AK-74u to Cat while I took knives.

As we walked around, we heard footsteps. I immediately took the knife by the blade, ready to throw it. I saw shadows draw near and I prepared the knife, but surprisingly we saw no gear or weapon on the shadow, despite in a crouched, frightened position. I payed attention to who would come across the corner, and it was a fellow in glasses and spiked hair: Michael.

Happily surprised, I went, "Eh!"

Michael shrieked, and flailed his fists around, "Holy shit! What? Aaron? Oh, you lucky mother fucker!"

He and I shared a hug and a laugh. He explained that he was in France because after the bombs went off, he drove right on over here. and after that the tanks blew up everything.

He was the first survivor that Cat and I found. He was able to come across some food, canned fruits, so we knew that we'd be able to survive for some time. It was raining, so there we came to the conclusion that no soldiers would come here. And yet, we were still low on supplies; with no sleeping arrangements, and low food.

The storm seemed like it would offer enough cover to go running around to salvage some things. Michael, Cat, and I, all agreed to go find things. However, Cat seemed reluctant to agree. I offered Michael knives, for he was good with a knife, and they'd offer more stealth than a gun, but Cat still held the magnum. We set off leaving the Ak-74u at the church. Cat held my hand the entire time.

We were under the cover of rain throughout the morning. However that meant everything else was under the same cover, and it'd take a while to find supplies. Michael, Cat, and I went into the city. We walked for a while but we spent most of our time catching up.

"How'd you find us?" I asked as we left the church.

He pushed his glasses up. "Searched up the IP of your phone. Wasn't hard" he said somewhat snobbishly.

We caught up on the life we knew 24 hours ago, and what we might do when this crisis is over. I can't remember what it was. Likely wasn't important. Probably the usual 'kill some zombies' we often did.

After a few moments of silence I had to ask, "Why did you come here, Mike?" It was bugging me.

"We take care of our friends. You already have a girl to take care of, and I thought my best friend could use someone to help him in a crisis like this."

Cat said "Thank you," before I could. It was the first she'd talked that walk.

There was a little patrol camped out in the early rain... They were at an abandoned street corner, but they sat in a circle so I'd be hard to come to them without being seen. The storm however would make our approach easier. We all sat down around a street corner to discuss options. We had 2 options here: Kill them all at once, or divert them away from the site. We decided on a mix; disperse them, then kill them 1 at a time. Well, when I say 'we' I mean Mike and I. Cat remained silent this whole time.

Michael and I took rocks from broken buildings, laying on the ground, and threw them into alleys on opposite sides of the road. This brought away 2 guards, and left 1 sitting at the site. Luckily, the remaining soldier faced away. Michael took one alley, I took the one sitting, and Cat took the opposite alley. I already knew this wasn't going to go smooth.

As the soldiers began to disperse, and we readied ourselves to follow, I asked Michael, "You ever killed a man Mike?"

"Nope, but I suppose we don't have much of a choice. What about you?"

"I've hunted before, but yesterday was the first human."

"Well there's a first time for everything. Let's get on it." Michael said with a groan getting up.

"Alright, you ready, Cat?" I asked, getting up.

Michael and I took out the guards with a good fight, but Cat had a different experience. Cat didn't want to kill him. She hid behind a dumpster as the soldier walked idly down the alley. However, he turned around spotted her, and spoke angry Russian that she couldn't understand. He pulled out his combat knife and charged for her. She ran back out, or at least she tried. The soldier drew near and she grabbed his hands and tried to hold the knife away. It worked for her so she gave one last push to get the soldier away, but the push caused the knife to stab the soldier in the neck, killing him.

Cat's hands began to shake uncontrollably. There was blood on her hands. She stared at them for a second before running back to me, screaming. I was confused, even as she held me tightly in her arms. My shirt soaked the Russian blood and tears from her.

"Cat! Shhhhh. Please... Everything's alright, love." I said in an attempt to calm her.

"Aaron, I killed someone... I... Aaron, I'm going to hell! I... I'm not a murderer." She cried and sobbed so hard that some of that was difficult to understand.

"Cat, please. Listen to me. It's not the end of the world." I said to reassure her.

"Aaron, help me." Cat cried so softly.

I realized I couldn't snap some sense into her so I let her sob into my shoulder

I took Cat and carried her, as well as backpacks full of cooking supplies, food rations, and rifles, consisting of an AK-74, Dragunov SVD, and magazines. The rifles had camouflage for urban areas with digital paterns of red and black, peeling to reveal gun-metal-gray underneath. They also carried grenades, semtex, and claymores. Plenty of ammo was found inside the packs. Michael and I could guess they were about 60 pounds each. The 2 packs sufficed as we went on our way.

Cat's cries softened, with the rain as we made our way back to the church that morning. Surprisingly enough that only took one full hour.


End file.
